Amid Sugar Price Surge, Vajpayee’s Old Speech Goes Viral
Centre’s Discomfiture Sparks Belated Remedial Actions
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2026-08-27 12:16 UTC
An old, forceful speech in Parliament of Atal Behari Vajpayee, then a BJP leader in the Opposition, has resurfaced online in recent days. The veteran leader, who later became Prime Minister, chose to speak on the marked uptrend in the open market prices of sugar which then had touched Rs 20 a kg [reportedly spiralling by 20-30 per cent]. On that occasion, Vajpayee traced the unusual spurt to failure on the part of the then Union government to foresee supply shortages, lack of inter-ministerial coordination, the matter not receiving due attention in the Prime Minister’s office and bureaucrats’ failure to advise the authorities to arrange import of sugar well in time as there were enough indication of sugarcane production declining. He bluntly said the abnormal price spurt had seriously hurt consumer interest. If this is one aspect of the prevailing situation the other aspect is that the profiteering that generated crores of rupees must have been shared between mill owners and traders.